Powder dispensing comb



Jan. 27, 1953 J. SULLIVAN 2,626,617

POWDER DISPENSING coMB Filed Deo. 10, 1949 v JNVENToR. @s Joh/11. .5w/lvm -A rToRA/EY Patented Jan. 27, 1953.

POWDER DISPENSING COMB John L. Sullivan, Seattle, Wash., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Comb-A-Flea Co., Inc., a corporation of Washington Application December 10, 1949, serial No. 132,256

1 claim. (c1. 132-13) This invention relates to a comb particularly adapted for use on animals and which will deliver an exterminating powder or other insecticide under the hair of the animal and deposit it on the skin to destroy parasitic insects or vermin found thereon.

Several patents have been granted for combs particularly adapted to eject liquids, rather than powder, for hair dressing or scalp treatment.

Patent #1,451,260 to Holland is representative. Hollands comb comprises a caverned back, hollow teeth, and a flexible bulb with the neck of the bulb and the teeth ducts, respectively, leading to and from the cavity in .the back. However, none of the liquid applicator combs can be efficiently and effectively used to apply a powder, although somewhat similar devices which proposed to eject a powder have appeared upon the market but have been in each instance shortlived. By way of explanation for this failure to have obtained trade acceptance, a comb. structurally similar to Hollands, when filled with a powder instead of a liquid, dispenses the powder from .the teeth in localized concentrations of considerable density instead of being delivered therefrom in the fine cloud-like state which is desirable. Difficulty has been also experienced in preventing the powder from caking in the teeth ducts and thus clogging the holes, such caking being attributable to the small and uniform cross-section of the ducts and to the fact that the powder is not thoroughly mixed with air before reaching the teeth. Such failure to eifect a thorough mixture between the powder and air also accounts for the fact that the powder is dispensed in unusually large quantities which, perforce, results in the ejection of far more powder than is needed to treat the animals skin and lthus results in a great waste of powder. In fact, a very few squeezes of the bulb completely exhausts all the powder load. It is a p-rincipal aim of the present invention to devise a syringe-type powder-feeding comb employing a bulb no more than the usual size and having its parts so constructed and arranged that a powder load contained within this bulb will be metered out in small quantities and thus enable a single loading to handle an innumerable number of squeeze operations.

I have as another object of my invention the providing of a powder dispensing comb that will insure thorough mixing of the powder with air and will eject such mixture in a highly atomized or cloud-like state.

With the above and still other objects and ad vantages in view, and which will be understood in the course of the following description and claim, the invention consists in the novel construction, adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 isa view partly in longitudinal vertical section and Vpartly in side elevation representing a comb constructed to embody the .teachings of the present invention; and

Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section-on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

In the embodiment illustrated my comb body comprises two parts which I denote as a back member 6 and a tooth-carrying member 1. The former is of uniform wall thickness and is vaulted throughout its length, the concavity 8 which is thereby formed being preferably of a lancet-arch conguration in section. The said arch varies in height, reaching a maximum near .the midpoint of the length and gradually diminishing toward the front and rear ends 9 and I, respectively. At the extreme rear end, the side walls II of such back member terminate abruptly to form an abutment wall. At the forward end 9 of the back member, such side walls converge and meet, The side Walls I I are thickened along the bottom edge, and the rib I3 which this thickening produces is rabbeted along the inside.

As respects the toothed member l, the same is open yto the top throughout the greater part of its length and the teeth, designated by I5, are evenly spaced and depend from this open-top portion. The teeth are hollow, and throughout the greater part of their axial length have their front and back walls I'I placed substantially parallel to one another whereas the side walls IE slope inwardly toward the tip I8 of the tooth so that the contained passageway I9 is elliptical in cross-section but varies in area, and this is to say that the width across the minor axis is constant and the width across the major axis diminishes toward .the tip of the tooth. The tips I3 of the teeth have a delivery duct 2 leading from the said passageways to the atmosphere.V

The open-top upper body portion of my said toothed member is prolonged rearwardly by a longitudinally extending hollow stem 23 of circular cross-section whose rearmost extremity is closed, and this stem, at its juncture with the open-top body principle presents a forwardlyfacing shoulder rising above the top opening and forming a mating face for the abutment wall of the back member 6. The stem is made torulose at its front end, and in spaced proximity of its rear extremity presents a wall port 2l, said port being preferably positioned on the upper side of the stem although alternative positions to be later explained are, however, feasible.

The comb members 6 and I are preferably molded from a suitable plastic. In assembling therdevice, the back member 6 is seated upon the tooth-carrying member 'I withthe upper edge of the open-top portion fitting in the rabbet and with the two mating abutment walls bearing against one another, the two members then being permanently bonded, forming a comb whose external appearance is fairly conventional. The result internally is a manifold chamber 39 running the length of the combs body principle and having a hollow connecting stem leading to, and nozzle-tipped narrowing passages leading from, the manifold.

A collapsible bulb 28, preferably made of rubber, is fitted upon the steml 23 with its neck 29Y tightly engaging the torose frontal end which thus serves to resist withdrawal of the bulb from the stem. It will be noted, with the bulb applied, that the port 27 is housed within and occupies a position central, or approximately central, to the length of the bulb.

. Before use, the bulb 2S is loaded with the exterminating powder and then the neck 29 is sleeved upon the stem. In use the comb is drawn through the animals hair in the conventional manner. During thecombing operation squeezing of the bulb will cause the ejection of a fine cloud of air-suspended powder from the bored tips l 8 of the teeth onto the animals skin. Such cloud-like discharge occurs from the fact that, by contraction ofy the bulb, powder within the bulb is pushed forward toward theneck and packed between the stem and the surrounding inner wall of the bulb forwardly of` the port 2l'. During such contraction theairv in the bulb is compressed` and can .only escape through theY port 2.y As it escapes it creates whirls and eddies and picks up and mixes with, only a small amount of the powder in the bulb, the major part of the powder being pressed. against the neck end of the bulb as aforesaid. It is obvious that 'the larger the area of the port 21 thev greaterV will be the amount of powder discharged uponr a single contraction of the bulb. Also, within limits prescribed by the capacity of the port, it can be. assumed that the closer the port 27 lies in relation to the front end of the bulb the greater will be the powder discharge because the escaping air will be closer to and will pick up more of the powder packed at the forward end of the bulb. I have shown the portv 27 asbeing in the upper side of the steml 23 for the reason that, when the bulb is squeezed, the palm is usually placed over the top of the bulb while the ngers press against the lower side thereof. The palm covers a large area, is inherently concave, and hence there is little likelihood of the bulb being compressed into such a position as might smother the port and block the hole, whereas pressure of'a finger over the portvery well might close off the latter. From this discussion it can be seen that the port could very well be placed at either side of the stem 23. I reiterate that it is not my intention to limit my invention to use of only a single port, nor to any particular placement'thereof, although extensive tests which I have conducted seem rather ccnclusively to establish that a single port located as shown and of a rather small-size giving a flow capacity less than theltotal combined new capacities of the several nozzleducts best-accomplishes the results which I desire, namely atomization of thevdelivered powder and an absence of clogging within'the teeth.

After entering the port 27, the pressurized airand-powder mixture entersthe stem and carries therefrom into the-manifold 30, wherefrom it is uniformly `distributed to the passageways of the 4 teeth and therefrom to the outlet ducts 20. With the passageways narrowing toward the ducts 20, caking atthe manifold-connecting ends of the passageways is prevented and the hollow teeth exhibit no tendency to clog.

When the bulb is released and permitted to expand and ll again with air, such air is, of course, drawn from the atmosphere back through the ducts and the port 2 before reaching the bulb. Such. returning air cleans the ducts and port' and dislodges any powder that may have gathered during theV spraying operation.

The position of the stem 23 with respect to the'backof the comb is irrelevant. It could, for example, be placed near the center of the back and extend therefrom in any direction and still function eifectively. I have. shownthecombibody as beingl fabricated of two members 6 andA 'l but such is not intended as a limitation but is only forl ease of manufacture. It is self-evident that my comb can be used on humans if desired and that variousmodcations'of the invention, along the lines specifically referred to as well as in otherrespects, may be resorted to without. departing from the spirit ofmy teachings, and I accordingly intendthat no limitations be implied and thatthe hereto annexed claims be given the broadest interpretation to which the employed language fairly admits.

What IV claim is:

A powder dispensing comb comprising, a manifold, hollow teeth extending as lateral outlets from the manifold and each having a discharge opening to the atmosphere adjacent its tip, a hollow stem leading to thev chamber of the manifold and having a port. adjacent its outer end, and acollapsible necked bulb enclosing said stem with its neck snugly investing the stem at a point thereon removed a material distance. from said port so that an appreciable'quantity of powder can be stored in the bulb and will substantially all be forced between the stem and the bulb when the latter is squeezed leaving the port clear for the passage of a homogeneous mixture of powder from the bulb into the manifold chamber, theV combined flow capacities of the discharge openings from the teethbeing as great as that of thelsaid port inthe stem so that the teeth will not clog.

JOHN L. SULLIVAN.

REFERENCES CITED.

The following references are of recordin the file of thisY patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 715,837 Mosterts Dec. 16,)1902 1,051,714 Edwards Jan. 28, 1913 1,113,843 Smith Oct. 13, 1914 1,449,096 Griete'n Mar. 2D, 1923 1,698,631 Hutchings Jan. 8,' 1929 2,295,746 Metzler Sept. 15, 1942 2,513,865r Hazzaet al. July 4, y1950 2,532,001 Williams .,Nov. 2821950 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country n Date.

7,460 Great Britain 1906 317,984 Germany' Jan. 8, 1920 438,005 Great Britain Ma-y 11, 1935v 441,861 i Great Britain Jan. 27, 1936 

